But that’s something that I witnessed change since the 80’s and makes the electronic crappier, it’s the fact that appliances in the 70’s-90’s were incredibly easy to fix. It was not rare for the manufacturer to even give schematics in the user’s manual. There were shops to repair stuff everywhere and it was something approachable by anyone who could hold a soldering iron.
They also had a far higher price. This changed the effective disposability. E.g. you likely wouldn’t pay $500 to fix a $400 washing machine. If it were a $10,000 washing machine, it’s more reasonable.
This is why TV repair shops disappeared. TVs got cheap enough that the labour cost would outweigh the replacement cost. I recently fixed a TV with a dodgy backlight. The parts cost £12, but it took me a few hours. If my time was factored in, in a business manner (including accounting for downtime, profit ,and expenses) it would have been over 75% of the replacement cost.
Also, a lot of newer features add complexity and make for more difficult repairs.
Eh, not really. If anything it’s easier because all you have to do is swap out circuit boards instead of soldering in new parts.
